The Lonely Tree In Sunset
by Nerdy-Girl-No.319
Summary: We are all familiar with the song Hanging tree. But who wrote this song? How many unfortunate lover's stories are waiting to be told? What lies behind the short 4 verses of the song? Travel back to he Panem that just endured the first rebellion, and uncover the true story of the Hanging Tree. Rated T for scenes that may include deaths(a common thing in Panem), but no adult scenes.
1. Prologue

Remember me when I am gone away,  
Gone far away into the silent land;  
When you can no more hold me by the hand,  
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day  
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:  
Only remember me; you understand  
It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while  
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:  
For if the darkness and corruption leave  
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,  
Better by far you should forget and smile  
Than that you should remember and be sad.

－Christina Rossetti


	2. Chapter 1

Justica shivered and quickened her pace, regretting the fact that she did not take her jumper with her when she crept out of the house, as well as the turn she took not long ago, thinking about it now, it was probably the reason she was still staggering around this lonely forest this moment.

What's the time now? She forgetfully wondered. It must be way past twelve; Oleander must be starting to worry. At this thought, she started to walk a bit faster without even realising it herself.

The woods was pitch dark at midnight, Justica could clearly hear every "ribbit" of a frog, every "coo" of an owl, every "chirrup" of a cricket and loads of other noises she couldn't identify. "Should have brought a torch along, at the very least. "She moaned under her breath.

The sounds are getting more restless and loud, as if an entire symphony orchestra was playing at maximum volume right next to Justica. She was starting to seriously consider how long she'd travelled, but was only able to come to the useless conclusion of "hell knows how long". It was getting frustrating.

Slowly though, the large and dense groups of trees was starting to disappear and a small clearing emerged. It was so reassuring to see the familiar outline sitting at the feet of the only tree right in the middle of the flat piece of land－Oleander.

Justica broke into a run to meet him.

"Where've ya been? I've been starting to calculate the odds of you tripping over and dying on your way here…" Oleander said in his usual cheerful tone.

"Nice to see you too, O." Justica said as she leant forwards to kiss him on the cheek. Together they sat down in front of the lonely tree they always met up at, ("You'll have huge trouble identifying any other trees." Was the reason Oleander gave for picking that one).

"You didn't answer my question yet, where did you go?"

"I got lost." Justica said flatly. Oleander snorted.

"Getting lost in a wood that you've spent your whole life in, I think only can manage that."

"I took the wrong turn," Justica protested, "My mind wasn't on that."

"What was it on, then?" Oleander pressed.

"Stuff." She answered, hoping to cut off this conversation. Unfortunately Oleander was not ready to let the subject go, yet.

"Very specific." He said.

"Fine. I was worried about mum and the future and how everything turned out to be and of course other things none of us can help." Justica said coldly.

Nobody talked for a minute.

"This is the one thing I cannot say will be fine, Juss."

"Great." Justica snapped, getting up, "you really know how to ruin a night, Oleander." She turned to leave.

Oleander called after her, "Hey Juss, Juss! C'mon, it's not fair! What was I supposed to say?"

"Did you have to ask me? Couldn't you have just…let it drop? Wasn't it clear where the conversation was heading?" Justica whipped around on her heels and blurted out.

"OK fine, I'm sorry alright? I'm worried as well, you know!"

She thought about this for a moment, and then sat down again. Oleander mumbled a "Thank you…" in an annoyed tone as he sat down besides her.

"I can't believe it ended though." Justica said quietly after a few seconds.

"What did?" Oleander whispered back.

"The rebellion…I was hoping that maybe…"

"Yeah…yeah."

They both sighed and leaned back against the rough tree trunk, looking up at the crooked branches.

"It could have been a lot worse, though."

"Like what?"

"Like us being wiped out. That's what happened to thirteen."

"Seriously?" Justica asked, perking up at this. "They got… wiped out?"

"Yeah, the Capitol destroyed every single bit of them, all debris. My father told me, you can trust him on this."

"Oh right, the chief-commander thing." Justica remembered.

Oleander's father, commander Vlsser, was the head commander for the Capitol army that fought against the rebel in district twelve.

"Hey, that's not my problem!" Oleander protested.

"No, no, don't get me wrong, I'm just…"

"Talking about which, they are planning on searching Daniel McRae's house this Thursday." Oleander warned.

"Oh OK, I'll tell my mother that, she'll sort it out perfectly."

"Oh right, the leader of rebellion thing." Oleander mocked. Justica stuck her tiny tongue out at him.

"They say people are planning a second rebellion, though…" Oleander said after a while, "They say it's not over."

"Who says?" Justica asked, turning wary at the mention of this.

"You know, the peacekeepers." Oleander shrugged. "Come on, Juss! A little trust please?" He then pleaded when he sees Justica's suspicious stare. "You know I'm on your side, I'd never betray you."

"Of course not… O… I know you'd never do it consciously."

"Consciously?" Oleander demanded.

"Well… You know how easily you let things slip… " Justica replied slowly. "But no, it's not true." She quickly added when she sees the signs of hurt on his face. "O, we haven't got what it takes now, there's hardly anyone left to fight anymore. It's over."

"Yeah, it is, and you'd better get home." Oleander snapped.

"O…"

"I won't be able to save you if you get caught." He said flatly.

"O I'm sorry!" Justica apologised desperately.

"No, don't be. It's nothing personal, just get home."

"Bye Oleander."

"I love you, Juss."

"See you here tomorrow night?" Justica asked, hopeful again.

"No, not tomorrow… I've got… Stuff to do." Oleander replied uneasily.

"Like what?" Justica pressed.

"Justica, don't push it. Now get home. I will pass a message to you about our next meet. It'll probably be a long time before we can, anyways."

"I love you, O." Justica said before she turned and walked away towards the nightmare of district twelve, and Oleander watched her as she became smaller and darker and smaller and darker, until she finally gets swallowed by the darkness and the trees.

"I love you, Juss. I love you enough to betray my family and my religion. I love you to the moon and back." He whispered, yet only the night wind was there to hear him.


	3. Chapter 2, Justica POV

For two weeks Justica haven't heard a word from Oleander. Not that she cared, anyways, she had other ways to keep herself busy. In some ways she was glad Oleander hadn't called for another meeting, if they'd met, Justica wouldn't have been able to keep the secret away from him.

Justica had been preparing Oleander's birthday present, she's decided to make him a new flute, since his last one was left behind in his house in the Capitol when he moved down to District twelve with his father, and is now lost.

It took her a whole week to carve the flute out of a piece of bamboo that she had scavenged from the woods, and another five days to decorate it. Justica decided to use purple paint from wild blackcurrant juice to paint little flowers on the flute－Oleander flower, the plant her boyfriend was named after.

It was a Thursday afternoon and the autumn sun was shining extra hard with its remaining powers, making everything glisten like gold, Justica returned home with long strands of wild grass, ready for the final stage of present making－wrapping.

"For the present, again?" Her mother asked casually as she stepped through the door.

"Yeah, it's almost done now." Justica replied enthusiastically.

"Good riddance, you're getting really behind on your studies."

Justica sighed and sat down, starting to untangle the grass and wrapping them onto the flute one by one.

"Who did you say it was for, again?" Her mother asked curiously after a while.

"A friend, it's his－her birthday soon. She likes to play the flute." Justica answered smoothly.

"The same friend that has been giving us…informations?"

"No." Justica replied quickly, she couldn't risk her mom making any connections.

"Alright. Well go get on with it."

Justica returned to wrapping the flute again.

As soon as she's done with that, Justica put the whole thing aside and took a fresh piece of paper and a pen, looked over her shoulder to make sure her mother was not anywhere where she can see what's she doing, put the tip of the pen to the paper and began to write:

"Dear Oleander,

Haven't heard from you for so long!

Can you make it tomorrow, old spot old time?

Best wishes,

J.H."

She folded the paper twice and got up from her chair.

"Mother, I'm going out." Justica called out to her mom.

"Be back before curfew!" Her mother shouted back from the second floor, or so it sounds like.

Justica stepped out of the house and walked quickly towards Oleander's, which was on the other side of the district. She passed the local square on her way there and ran into several of her mom's friend. They all greeted her with great enthusiasm. If only they knew who she was going to right this moment.

Oleander lived with his parents in the big house built especially for them, the head peacekeeper's family, right next to the mayor's mansion, on the nicer side of the district, opposite of the part where Justica lived amongst other normal people of District Twelve.

Life was hard on Justica's part of the district, everyone the age of twenty to sixty had to make contribution of some sorts to the district, wether it was gathering, crafting, hunting, mining or some other things. All of the people were very poor, as well, for a lot of what they get went to the rich and important people, and a lot went to the Capitol as well. So little was left to the normal people there were barely enough for them to survive. Justica's part of District twelve was nicknamed the Seam.

Justica walked around the Justice Building, hoping that no one saw her, and towards the three-floored house that belonged to the Vlsser family. She looked up and behind her, making sure no one was there, and swiftly chucked the folded note under the main door. She turned on her heels and jogged back, before anybody could catch her poking around in the nicest part of the district. It wasn't illegal, but definitely suspicious.

As soon as she got home Justica felt terrible, if this letter falls into, say Oleander's dad's hand, it would be so certain Oleander was up to something. She should've made it more subtle, so that only her boyfriend would see the hidden meaning behind the words. But come think of it, she was never good at that kind of stuff.

At least I didn't put my name on it. She thought to herself. Or the meeting spot, or time. Oleander could just say he's been talking to a wealthy merchant's daughter.

And with this comforting thought, she walked out from her room, down the stairs, and joined her mother for supper.

When Justica arrived in the small moonlit clearing she did not see Oleander. Feeling terribly disappointed, she managed to convince herself to wait some more. Lying down on the big pile of leaves that has started to gather at the foot of the tree, she started going through things in her mind.

Justica did not remember much about the time before all this chaos started. The picture of her dad was growing more and more blurry by the second, Justica grasped on some distinguishing feature she could still remember-the curly back hair, the twinkling blue eyes, the warm smile, the cheesy grin… and most of all, the way he used to call her "little warrior". Justica's eyes started to water, she had locked up all the memories of him in the deepest, most secured vault in her brain, letting the keyhole go rusty. She'd never visited it, not even once, since he got captured by the Capitol. Now, little by little, she opened a the door to an ajar position.

All the memories came flowing out, overpowering her mind, bursting through her eyes, nose, mouth and ears, shot out into the air and formed images in the sky.

Justica watched her tiny self giggle and tackle her father, laugh hysterically as her father hoisted her up on his neck and sprinted through the trees, and snuggle up with him during on of the many long nights in the bed and read a bed time story. Justica's father always read her stories from greek mythologies, her dad loved greek myths.

A rustling sound began from beyond the trees, it was rhythmic, not like wind moving the trees. It was someone stepping on dried up leaves that laid on the forest floor for sure.

The sound grew continuously louder and eventually snapped Justica out of her fantasies. She jerked her head towards the source of the sound and stood up, slowly from the thick layers of trees a familiar shadow emerged.

"Oleander!" Justica squealed in delight, recognizing the shadow immediately. "You came!"

"'Course I did, silly," Oleander replied. "Special order from the princess herself!"

Justica walked forward to hug him, but pulled away shortly after. "I didn't cause you any trouble did I? I mean, did your parents see the note?" Obviously this was her biggest worry ever since yesterday afternoon.

"My dad picked it up, but I snatched it away before he can see what's on it, skimmed it quickly, said it was a love letter from some merchant's little daughter, said I would be embarrassed if he read it and ripped it up in front of his eyes. He looked pretty convinced." Oleander reported, obviously pleased with himself.

"Wow. You sure are a whole lot better at this kinds of things than I am." Justica said with an admired tone.

"I'm sure it runs in the blood." Oleander teased, which caused Justica to pout. "So may I know why miss Hope summoned me here today, then?"

"Why, to celebrate your birthday! You haven't forgotten about it have you?"

"Hmm no. I've done it with my family already, so don't go through the trouble."

"Ah too bad." Justica said cheerfully, leading him towards the tree hand handing him the wrapped present.

"A present? Wow Juss you shouldn't have bothered!"

"Why not? It's my boyfriend's birthday!"

Oleander hugged her and kissed her full on the lips. When they finally pulled away from each other, Justica urged. "Well what are you waiting for? Open it!"

So Oleander did, and gasped when a beautifully carved and painted flute was revealed. He took it out and held it gingerly in his hand, looking at every detail go its body.

"Do you like it?" Asked Justica carefully after a while.

"I love it." Oleander assured her. "Did you make this?"

"Yeah...I did." She admitted.

Oleander quickly played two scales, "the notes are all correct too. It's amazing!" He confirmed.

"Happy birthday, O."

"Thank you, Juss. You made my day."

The both of them seemed to have realized that they were standing all the time, because they sat down at the same time under the tall maple tree. They stared up into the night sky.

"Have have you been up to these days, O?" Justica asked curiously.

"My old man took me to loads of meetings." Answered Oleander with a chuckle. "He wants to train me to start caring and thinking about these things, so, when the time comes, I could take his place."

"Would you?" Justica asked.

"When the time comes, there's no escaping it. But I will do things differently, Juss, I would do all I can to make people's life easier."

"You're the best." Justica said, her tone full of admiration. "So what was the meeting about?" She added.

"The Capitol is planning on an event, it's called the Hunger Games." Oleander told her.

"Sounds bad."

"Is bad. They are determined to become the next Roman Empire. What with Panem meaning 'bread' in Latin, and the Capitol representing the capital city of Rome,"Oleander spat angrily, "and what d'you think the Hunger Games is a metaphor of?"

"Gladiators." Justica whispered, trembling and pale.

"Exactly. They think forcing people to slaughter each other is key to keeping power." Oleander continued, not noticing Justica's unease at all. "And the sick thong is, I used to worship them, I used to think they were right and this is the best way to rule. I used to dream to become one of them, to fight to create a world like this.

"I would still think this way if I hadn't met you, Juss. You changed me and made me see what's right, what's beautiful. You made me believe in love again. You truly stand for justice and hope, just like your name, Justica Hope."

Justica couldn't think of what to say, so she leant forward and kissed him gently on the lips. Oleander kissed her back. There they remained for a very, very long time, not one of the two moving, under the starry night sky.

Finally Justica, unable to keep down all the questions bubbling in her mind, started to speak. "So what exactly is this Hunger Games?" She began.

"As I said before, it's like the gladiators game in olden Roman time. They want to make it into a celebration, a memorial of the rebellion that ended, of the peace that returned."

"How fun." Justica sighed. "Who will be playing?"

"Children. The age is yet to be determined. But some thinks the first game should be played by children of the rebellion army."

"That actually makes sense."

"They wish to set the date at July thirteenth, or the second Friday of the month."

"Let me guess...the day District Thirteen got destroyed?" Justica askd.

Oleander looked greatly surprised. "How did you know?"

"District Thirteen was the first to start the rebellion. They made up the main force of the army, they provided the best weapons and supplies. Most of all, they were the bond and core of the rebellion. When they got destroyed, the whole rebel team basically fell apart. Bombing them was the start of the end. If I were the Capitol, I'd want to use such a symbolic date as well. "

If Oleander was greatly amused, "you've just qualified to become on the the senates in the Capitol, Juss." He joked.

"Is that a compliment?" Justica questioned.

"No." Oleander concluded after considering it for a moment.

"Huh. So is this hunger games gonna start any time soon?"

"I don't think so. They're gonna make it big, with a huge arena and a training centre. As well as the luxury transportation to get the player there. They're gonna wait until the Capitol is fully rebuilt, and the train system is set up. In three years time maybe, maybe even four."

"Huh." Was Justica's reply after the long lecture.

"What?" Oleander demanded.

"Nothing, it's just that I often think it would be a pity if you don't take your father's place. You're really like him."

"In what way?"

"Like the fact that you get seriously excited when you talk about these sort of stuff."

"Huh." Oleander mimicked.

Then, gently putting his new flute to his lips, he began softly playing a tune that had Justica's eyes fixed on him instantly.

Slowly, as she began to recognise the tune, Justica started singing along the music.

"Deep in meadow,

Under the maple,

A bed of grass,

A soft green pillow.

Lay down your head,

And close your eyes,

And when again they open,

The sun will rise."

He played and played and she sang and sang, lost together into their own little world. Temperately they forgot how they are in constant danger of being found, how the Capitol's evil ways could only get worse, how they have no future in this place. They drifted further and further into the universe full of the fluent music of Oleander's and the sweet voice of Justica's. They left behind the fear and despair, the gloom and tension. They found hope and happiness in each other, they became brave together, and they were ready to fight for their love.

"Here it's safe,

And here it's warm,

Here the daisies guar you from every harm,

Here your dreams are sweet,

And tomorrow bring them true,

Here is, the place where I love you..."

After singing the last refrain, Justica trailed off. Oleander did the same after he repeated the harmony on last time too.

"I've always felt that song was written for us." Oleander sighed.

"Yeah...especially the second verse." Justica agreed.

"I really wish we could stay here all night, but I gotta go." Oleander said, getting up. "Important meeting tomorrow, if I yawn in the middle of that my old man is so gonna kill me."

"Hmm alright. You go get some sleep." Said Justica, standing up and pecking Oleander on the lips. "Happy birthday again."

"Thanks again for the present. Love you, Juss." He said, and right after turned and left.

"Love you too, O!" She called out to him.

A clear, loud, laughter rang out from the trees in reply.


End file.
